Snapchat Spectacles now available to all

LOS ANGELES — Those trendy Snap Spectacles video glasses are now available to the general public.

The $129 shades, which shoot 10-second video clips that wirelessly transfer to the Snapchat photo/video sharing app, went on sale in the late fall, in an unusual marketing concept. Snap initially offered them only from a bright yellow vending machine that would pop up in a city for one day only. Long lines formed, and inventory quickly sold out.

Starting today, the glasses will be available on the Snap Spectacles.com website. The New York pop-up store to sell the glasses has closed.

Beyond the e-commerce site, Snap is keeping the mystery going by announcing that the yellow vending machines, called Snapbots, "will continue to land in surprising locations around the U.S."

In our initial review of the Specs, we noted that the on-the-fly 10-second video clips could be played back in the updated Snapchat app, for more spontaneous, on-the-moments that you could pick up while strolling down the street, driving in a car, sitting at a restaurant, without having to pull out your phone.

"The glasses are stylish and a whole lot of fun," we said. "But if you're looking for great video quality, stick with a camera or smartphone. The clips are low-res and really jerky — shooting from your eyes doesn't allow for any steadiness help from the hands....But then again, no one is buying Spectacles for great video quality. They want Spectacles because they're colorful, cool and for the time being, represent an instant status symbol status, because they are so rare."

Snapchat Spectacles: video is sketchy but really, so what?

Not anymore.

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